Never Miss A House

The Beautiful Sets in Baz Luhrmann’s “Great Gatsby”

The sets in Baz Luhrmann’s new movie version of The Great Gatsby dazzled me. Jay Gatsby’s mansion was suitably castle-like. Daisy Buchanan’s red-brick Georgian had the classic look of old money. And Nick Carraway’s cottage was small but so charming I wanted to move into it myself. Let’s take a look at all three…

Daisy’s Red-Brick Georgian Estate in East Egg

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic Jazz Age novel was set on the Gold Coast of Long Island. Tom and Daisy Buchanan live in the (fictional) East Egg, known for its “old money” estates.

An article in Architectural Digest written by Brad Goldfarb says, “Luhrmann may take liberties with musical conventions in Gatsby, but he and his wife, designer Catherine Martin, strove for greater period authenticity—a dazzling version, to be sure—in the lavish sets.”

Tom Buchanan and Daisy’s cousin Nick went to Yale together. He shows Nick his “hall of fame:”

When Nick enters Daisy’s sitting room, the French doors are standing open and the curtains are billowing:

Catherine Martin has been in charge of production and costume design for most of Luhrmann’s movies and won two Oscars for her work on Moulin Rouge. Here’s a close-up of the sitting room that was featured in AD:

British actress Carey Mulligan played Daisy Buchanan. Doctor Who fans probably remember her as Sally Sparrow from the creepy “Blink” episode. I think of it every time I see her!

Electric fans are seen around the house to combat the (pre-AC) summer heat:

They sit down for an (awkward) lunch in the dining room. Daisy is supposed to tell Tom that she’s leaving him:

Australian actor Joel Edgerton played Tom, and he really seemed to belong to that era:

“The luxurious Hollywood Regency– and Deco-inflected furnishings in the sitting room, the contemporary art, and the formal gardens are all intended, Martin says, ‘to contrast Daisy with the new-money fantasist that is Gatsby.’” —AD.

The exterior was built on a soundstage, with “enhancements added digitally.”

Before we move on to Nick’s cottage, I can’t resist throwing in pics of Tom’s secret NYC apartment:

I love the vibrant colors they gave it, which seemed perfect for an illicit party pad.

Nick’s Cottage in West Egg

Nick rented “a forgotten groundskeeper’s cottage squeezed among the mansions of the newly rich” on Long Island’s West Egg for $80 a month. It sits in the shadow of Gatsby’s “colossal castle,” as Nick calls it.

I love the scene where Gatsby’s servants deliver a truckload of flowers in anticipation of Daisy’s arrival:

In an interview, Tobey Maguire (Nick) said, “Baz and his team built this spectacular world that brings you back to a version of the 1920s—one that also kind of contemporizes it. It’s the ’20s as the characters might have experienced them.”

He continued: “Visually, it’s absolutely amazing. There was certainly a kind of grandeur and beauty on the set that was appropriate for the story. There were also elements that were not physically built out but were added through animation. Watching it all come together has been really cool.”

I saw a segment on an entertainment show that aired while they were still working on the film that showed the actors working in front of a lot of green screens. It’s amazing to see how they filled in so much of the sets afterward.

*Update: Kim sent me a link to a fascinating video that shows the scenes with green screen and then how they looked with the CGI. You can watch it here.

Because so much of it was digitally animated, it gives the movie a dream-like quality and resembles a lot of the classic old movies where they often used paintings of houses instead of the real thing.

Gatsby is so nervous about seeing Daisy again after 5 years that he knocks this old clock off the mantel:

AD says, “Stickley-esque furniture, quartersawn oak beams, and moss-green tiles conjure an Arts and Crafts vibe inside. ‘It was all about finding what we thought were quintessential Long Island motifs,’ explains Martin. And materials that reflect Nick’s innocent nature.”

This set photo taken by Daniel Smith shows the gorgeous woodwork that divided the rooms of the cottage:

The kitchen is tiny but I love it:

Daisy and Gatsby on the side porch, looking toward his mansion next door:

Jay Gatsby’s “Colossal Castle” in West Egg

Gatsby’s house was inspired by places like Oheka Castle, La Selva, and Beacon Towers: “Looking at images of Beacon Towers, there’s something that gives it the feel of the Disneyland castle, and Baz referenced that—the idea that Gatsby was building a fantasy,” Martin told AD.

No expense was spared. Gatsby tells Daisy, “I had these gates brought in from a castle in Normandy.”

This is the original kind of “gallery wall,” lined from floor to ceiling with old paintings:

When Nick and Jordan explore the mansion in search of Gatsby, they meet an old man in the library who says, “You won’t find him. This house and everything in it are part of an elaborate disguise.” (Love that line.)

Like the library, the master suite is two-stories tall:

In his bedroom we see more modern Art Deco style. The rug was designed by Catherine Martin:

She oversaw the creation of 42 different sets in Sydney. Some were on location and others were built on soundstages.

AD reports: “It took her team 14 weeks just to build, paint, and decorate Gatsby’s mansion, which called for a grand ballroom, library, master bedroom, entrance hall, and terrace, as well as a garden.”

He not only has his own Wurlitzer pipe organ, but an in-house musician to play it for him:

The grandest set was Gatsby’s vast ballroom. His monogram was inlaid in the center of the floor:

Martin told Vanity Fair, “You get this sense of excess — of someone overreaching. This is conveyed in the Neo-Gothic style of Gatsby’s house and the almost Versailles-sized fountain in the front.”

I took most of these screenshots, but the official set photos were by Daniel Smith for Warner Bros:

Another “JG” monogram can be found in the center of the round pool:

A Vanity Fair article reports: “During an extensive location scout of houses in Long Island, Martin says, she, Luhrmann, and their crew stumbled upon their inspiration for the pool at Eagle’s Nest, a Spanish Revival–style mansion that William K. Vanderbilt II began building in 1910.”

His view of the bay…and Daisy’s house on the other side:

For the exterior shots of Gatsby’s estate, Architectural Digest reports that the Gothic Revival building that used to be St. Patrick’s Seminary in Sydney was used. They hung faux ivy on the first two floors and installed a temporary fountain in the courtyard.

Soaring turrets were digitally added in post-production so it looks, as Catherine Martin puts it, “like he lives in an adult Disney World.”

Haven’t seen the movie (though I re-read the book before it came out), but I’ll have to watch it for the sets alone. Wow! The houses are grander than I imagined – Gatsby’s is almost like Biltmore House – but I’ll take Nick’s gardener’s cottage any day.

P.S. Fourteen weeks doesn’t sound long to me to build those elaborate sets! Most of us would love to have builders and craftsmen who could work that skillfully and quickly with that amount of detail – even if it is just for show.

All three are stunning in their own way! I have not seen the movie yet, but what fun it must have been for the set crew! The book by F.Scott Fitzgerald was such a masterpiece of imagery – it’s nice that someone brought it to life on film in modern times.

Wow. That looks quite different from the Robert Redford/Mia Farrow version. Baz Luhrmann is a bit over the top for me, but it was fun to look at the sets without having to listen to the pounding beat of his soundtracks – thank you! I loved seeing the kitchen in the cottage. It looks just like the one that was in my grandmother’s house – the same size too. She put out some yummy meals from that little space, though.

I liked the movie. Leo and Toby were good in their roles. I do hope, at some point, they re-release it with another, more appropriate soundtrack. I disliked the mansions but I loved Toby’s cottage. The scene where Leo brought the groundspeople in and filled the cottage with flowers was sweet.

oh thank you SO much for the pictures of the cottage — it is absolutely my dream house — the place where I will mentally put myself the next time I have trouble sleeping. Thank you thank you thank you,

The movies were typical Baz Luhrmann….why make a subtle point when you can overstate, over-decorate and overwhelm….. It was almost painful. The CGI enhanced sets appeared fake on the screen; in fact it was so obvious I wonder if it was deliberate. The Buchanan house and lifestylebwas in no way representational of “old money” in that time period, but again, perhaps the point was that it was all a sham?

Love this post – thanks as always! I think that Country Girl got it right in her last comment – I adore Baz Lurhman movies as so visually rich and fantastical, but sometimes feel the visual feasts can lack a little depth, but having seen this movie I felt that lack of depth turned out to be PERFECT for Fitzgerald’s tale of shallow excess. I loved the movie 🙂